Improvement in machines for



' e 2 Sheets-Sheet 2.

A. M.",WILSON.

Street Sweeper.

No- -3,-797. Patented Oct. 16, 1844.

UNITED STATES PATENT QFF GE.

. ALEXANDER M. WILSON, or ROSSVILLE, NEW YORK.

IMPROVEMENT m MACHENES FoRswsEPmc erase-rs.

Specification forming part-of LettersIatent'No. 3,3792, dated October 16, 1844.

To all whom) it may aoncerm of Rossville, in the county of Richmond and State of NewYork, have inve edcertain new and useful Improvements i Machines for Sweeping Streets; and I do hereby declare that the following is 'a full and exact, descriptionthereof.

My machine is sustained upon a fourwheeled carriage firmly framed together for sustaining a series of revolving brushes and the apparatus therewith connected. About the center of the carriage there is a hollow wheel or drum, that is m-ade'torevolve hori-l zontally by means of "bevel'gearing connected; with the axle of the hind wheels.

the periphery'of' the dru and are suspended on joint-pins at their in er ends, thu's'allowing them to play up and down, it being necessary that said brooms should beraised from .the ground at a certain point in every revolution to cause them to leave the dirt in a rogu larrow, which they have swept together, and

this they are made to do by the action of a segment of a circle, one end of which is do pressed, so as to form an inclined plane, which receives a friction-roller attached to the upper side of each of the brooms. The stock or head of each of the brooms is curved, forming abouta quadrant of a circle, and the motion of the drum is toward the convex sides of said brooms. Thetwigs or fibers by which the when they arrive at the inclined plane, and are kept up, say, for one-fourth or less of their revolution, and are thereby made to deposit the sweepings in a-right line.

The revolving 'd'rum has above it near its periphery two circular rings, whichjare sustained by the'carriage-frame,-there being a space between them through which four or any other desired number of bolts pass that are made fastto the drum and haveattached to their, upper ends the axles of -friction-roll- From the. periphery of this drum there projects a'seris': I of brooms, usually eight in number, by which the sweeping is to be efiected. The handle" 'partS of these brooms plssthrough slots in drum F. stay the brooms and rise and fall with them..

ers, which rollers re sustained and run upon Beit known that I, ALEXANDER M. WILSON, L

the circular rings as upon arailway.

. In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a perspective view of my machine; Fig. 2, a side elevation','- and Fig. 3 a top view thereof.

A A are the two hind, and A A the two fore, wheels.

. B B are two line-timbers constituting the frame, and which may be about'twenty feet lon I r G are the two circular rings, which are attached by bolts to the under sides of the timbersB Bin such manner as'to leave. their dipper surfaces free for pairs of friction-rollers G G, constituting friction-trucks. 1

F F is the hollow drum or wheel, which is. attached to a ce'nter hub F" by arms -F' F. r x

- This drum I have'made five-feet six inches in diameter, fifteen inches deep, and eight inches wide on the rim.

Fig.4 isa vertical cross-section of the machine in the line w as of Fig. 3,.but drawn on a larger scale and showing thetmanner in which the friction-rollers or trucks Gare connected to the drum and roll upon the ways 0 O by bolts'd d,- attaching to'the drum F.

H H are the brooms, and a 0. their handles.

for sweeping, between bands otiron e e. The

. handle parta, may be made of wood, and occupies' the slots f fin the periphery of the co are jointed brace-rods, which,

The head H, I have made three .feet and the handle a. two feet six inches in length, the 'whole diameter of the sweep being ten feet.

I 1, Figs. 1, 2, and 3, isia circular segment of iron 'concentric with O O, and depressed at its end I, so as to constitute an inclined plane. To the upperedge of each of the heads of the brooms there is "attached a friction- The drum F is made to revolve by the revolution of the shaft by the'hind wheels A A,

said wheels being connected" to .the axle through the intermedium of -ratchets R a is,

borne up by spiral springs, thus allowing the carriage to back and turn freely inthe same manner as in the machine for cutting grass and grain for which I formerly obtained Letters Patent. I

M is .a bevel-wheelon the shaft of A A, gearing into a wheel N onthe line-shaft O, at

the opposite end of which there is a second bevel-gearing P Q, (Seen most distinctly in Fig. 4,) which gives motion to the hub?" of the drum or wheel F. The upper part of the hub is formed into a sliding clutch,as shown,

"and, am, Fig; i; This Iadm'its'o'f that de gree of vertical play to the drum which is 'necessary to keep it from cramping and enabling the friction-rollers to bear on the. circular ways 0 0. It will be found advantageous to allow the lower ends of the brooms to pass ovcr'a'bar or rod, w'hichshall bend the fibers andv cause them to throw oli any dirt which might otherwise accumulate upon them.-

X Xmay represent sucharod, which may be made-fastrto the carriage at its upper end "and be supported by awheel Y, running on the ground at its'lower end, the rod being placed in such a position as thatthe fibers shallpass over it as the brooms are lifted from the ground. 7

.As there are frequently small heaps of.

hardened dirt that the brooms alone wouldbe unable to. remove, I place a [row of hooked teeth-or cutters S S, Fig. 1,, on a cross-bar S S, which is allowed to. play up and down and ispressed on byspiral springs to regulate its action. The bar carrying these teeth or cutters runs upon wheelsT T, and stands im mediately infrontof the revolving broomsand within ,an inch or two of the groundtowhicli they accommodate themselves by the motion of the cross-bar. I intend, also, when it may be found necessary, to produce an action more powerful than that of the brooms by setting into the same or similar heads withv the brooms strong wire teeth,as show-n by the straight lines Z Z, Fig. 2,-which will serve to scratch up the tough mud and dirt which might 1 otherwise resist the .action of the brooms. These wirescratchers must be ra sed by the segment-rail, so as to passabove the,

rod XX.

In dusty Weather a water tank may be at tached to the carriage, as represented by the vessel 'V, and frontthis w'a'ter'may be [con veyedthrough 'a hose, asin the common watering-carts, to a distributing-trunk, as'at W, in front of the revolving brushes.

- In using this-machine a width of about ten feet will be swept by its once passing along,

and in r'epassing it will sweep ten feet more,

leaving the vdirt in regular rows. to be re-' moved by carts in the ordinary way.

Having thus fully'descrihed the nature of. I my improvementsont-he machine for sweeping streets, what I claim therein as new, and

desire to secure .by Letters-Patent, is-

The manner in which I have formed and arranged the brooms and combined them with the other parts of the apparatus, their stocks or heads being curved in "the manner set forth, and the system of, brooms being m'ade to revolve horizontally and to. deposit the dirt in'regular rows by raising them in a part of their circuit, as described, the general arrangement and operation of the respective parts of the machine being substantially the same with that herein fullymade kngown.

, 5 ALF Witnesses: 4 5

Trims. P. JoNEs, Win. BISHOP. 

